Perspective: Protect sacred site at 11 Tremerton

Guest Column

I urge Mayor Gardner, our city commissioners and Governor Jeb Bush to prevent any further removal of human remains and show respect for the sacred, Yamasee burial site at 11 Tremerton.

I strongly agree with the recent letters written by Bobby C. Billie (Independent Traditional Seminole Nation) and Shannon Larsen (Ancient Trees) in The St. Augustine Record urging respect and decency -- leave the remains alone and repatriate the ones already dug-up and removed exactly as they were found in respect for these Yamasee ancestors.

"Over the centuries, a double standard regarding the treatment of human graves developed. Disturbance of white dead was regarded with horror, and laws strictly protected white graves. But Indian graves were dug up freely in the name of science ... Most Native Americans believe that respect for the dead is more important than any knowledge of the past that might be gained by digging up graves. They are also aware that archaeological interest in human remains does not usually justify the digging up of the burials of white Americans."

-- Walter R. and Roger C. Echo-Hawk (Pawnee Nation), 1994.

Florida AIM is currently working to track down the bones of the nine human remains already removed to a laboratory in Gainesville and is negotiating for their repatriation.American-Indians are not going around digging up Caucasian graves to study the bones! We urge the same kind of respect for our American-Indian ancestors.

This sacred ground should be respected and memorialized -- NOT desecrated and destroyed with the construction of another expensive, generic, waterfront gated-community of eight homes by a developer -- Michael Johnigean of Empire Development Group LLC of Ponte Vedra Beach.

According to local historian David Nolan, Johnigean is also involved with the destruction of another endangered historic property in Davis Shores -- the former Knights of Columbus Hall.

In many communities this type of callous disregard for the deceased would not be tolerated in this day and age, even if it is "legal" under current Florida Law. A few years ago, the city of Miami saved and memorialized a sacred Tequesta site. Why can't St. Augustine do the same?

It is encouraging to hear that local archaeologists have indicated no intention to dig further at the burial site. According to Glenda Bailey-Mershon, a local multicultural activist, she found archaeologists at the site "very disturbed by the prospect of removal" and respectful of the people buried there.

The state, while unfortunately not absolutely opposing removal, has decreed that if the developer chooses that option, he must have round the clock professional archaeologists at the site, which could cost the owner as much as $200,000. Sounds to me like he could save money if he would donate the land to the city (or state) and claim some tax write-offs. Sometimes doing the right thing is worth more than anything any amount of money could buy. The city and state should have reserve funds on hand to purchase significant archaeological sites such as La Punta.

This site at the end of Marine Street is of great historical and religious significance, as well as the sacred resting place for perhaps 100 (or more) early 18th century, predominantly Yamasee inhabitants of a small village named Nuestra Senora del Rosario de la Punta by the Spanish. Many -- including myself -- are strongly opposed to the remaining bones being dug up, then disinterred and reburied at the Catholic Mission de Nombres.

I seriously doubt the Yamasee at the Indian village mission were Catholic by choice, but much more likely by necessity in order to receive protection from the Spanish. The Yamasee had been nearly decimated by the British in the summer and fall of 1715 and fled to "Spanish" Florida.

The Yamasee people, of the Muskogean language family, were forced out of the Carolinas following a war with the British in 1715. They had earlier been allied with the British but became incensed by degrading maltreatment and exploitation -- insults, fraud, forced labor, the encouragement of hopelessly massive debts through liquor handouts and the seizure of wives and children for the slave market to settle those debts.

Following their defeat by the governor of South Carolina, Charles Craven, who routed and massacred the greatly-overpowered Yamasee insurgents almost to the point of tribal extermination, the small groups of Yamasee survivors fled south to "Spanish" Florida. In Florida, they became allies of Spain (in St. Augustine) or joined with groups of Muscogee (Creeks), Hitchiti, Yuchi and others, including escaped African slaves, and became the people now collectively known as the Seminole.

Modern-day Yamasee descendents are reported to live among several different Seminole Nations in Florida and in Burke County, Ga.

The Yamasee people are not dead, even if they aren't currently classified as a "federally-recognized" Indian Nation. When will these descendents be contacted? Why have they not already been?

Destroying the site and removing further remains for dissection under a microscope would not only be an (expensive) tragedy, but would show great disrespect for the deceased. This town can and should do better. St. Augustine already has a poor record when it comes to honoring and memorializing important American-Indian and African-American cultural sites. This must change in our modern multi-cultural, multi-racial society!

This "tourist factory" town must begin to tell at least some of the real history of St. Augustine. We must not ignore the massive thefts of land, the virtual enslavement of the early Indigenous people at Spanish Catholic-Missions that decimated their cultural traditions and the cruel, murderous, blood-thirsty habits of some of the early Spanish Invaders -- Ponce and Menendez -- that too many in this town love to ignominiously glorify!

There are honorable historic Spaniards, such as Bartolome' de Las Casas, who could be honored. Why glorify the worst, not the best, of early Spanish culture?

Burials of early Caucasians -- either barbaric or noble -- are not dug up, dissected and examined in the lab and then reinterred in this community. Why should ancient Indians, who, if sometimes violent, were only fighting in defense of their homes, families and way of life, be treated with such disregard?

The grave-robbing actions planned for 11 Tremerton violate the spirit and intent of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) if not the exact letter of that law.

We, as responsible, fair-minded and moral citizens of this community must not allow Mr. Johnigean to plunder sacred graves for profit. We must not allow any anthros to desecrate for "intellectual curiosity." A mere plaque for pigeons to poop on doesn't cut it either! These American-Indian ancestors deserve much better. They deserve to be left alone, where they currently rest, in Peace.